#150 — Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

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One of the most traumatic episodes of my adolescence was my break-up with Carrie. For a brief time, she was the center of my world and I thought only of her. It didn’t last. I should have known it would never work; she was older, more attractive and completely unaware of my existence. We inhabited different worlds; I was an acne-faced high school student and she was a princess on Alderaan. At least she played a princess on Alderaan. (My hormone-addled teenage brain had occasional trouble with the distinction between film and reality.) When I realized we could never truly be together, I broke up and moved on … to Karen Allen.

Really.

At least the break-up wasn’t bitter. It didn’t seem to phase Carrie at all and living through the emotional trauma made me stronger and better able to handle the other inevitable break-ups in my life. It also gave me a chance to practice my lame break-up lines like, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Has that line ever — in the entire history of human kind — worked on anybody?

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Like this excerpt? Want the whole story? Listen to the audio version by clicking the ‘Play’ button at the top of this post. If you’d rather read it, you can find the full text at http://myfavoriteshortcomings.wordpress.com/0009/04/25/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do/

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Notes:

• Thanks to Sam “The Money Geek” for promoting me on Twitter’s #followfriday.  You can find Sam on Twitter or the web at:
  http://www.twitter.com/themoneygeek
  http://themoneygeek.com/
• Thanks, too, to the proprietor of the Diurnal Labyrinth blog at:
  http://diurnallabyrinth.squarespace.com
• Learn more about Holly Lisle’s writing course at:
  http://howtothinksideways.com/
• And check out the Holly Lisle interview on I Should Be Writing
  http://isbw.murlafferty.com/?p=327